Oregon state tax collections at historical high

by Dan Lucas

In response to a query from state Sen. Doug Whitsett, Oregon Legislative Revenue Officer Paul Warner replied on August 18, 2016, that it was safe to say that Oregon’s total state tax collections are at a historical high.

That’s consistent with historical data on Oregon tax collections in a February 2014 research report from the Oregon Legislative Revenue Office (LRO) that I wrote about two years ago. That data from 1970-2013 showed “During the 40+ years, income taxes have outstripped inflation and population growth by about $2.5 billion – ending up at $6.7 billion rather than $4.2 billion.”

It’s also consistent with the continuing rapid growth of the Oregon budget. As I noted in April “this General & Lottery Funds budget ‘reflects a staggering increase of $2.1 billion from the previous $16.8 billion budget.’ That was on top of another staggering increase of around $2 billion from the previous budget cycle.”

In that same article, I also pointed out that charts produced by the State of Oregon’s Legislative Fiscal Office “show the General & Lottery Funds [biennial] budget grew over $6.5 billion in just the past 10 years – from around $12.5 billion in 2005-07 to $19 billion now!”

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